Hello and welcome back to Madarao Now - hope your summer went well. It was a fine summer here - while it got hot in the middle of it all even up here, it was certainly more comfortable than down in the city, so quite a lot of people visited Madarao to escape the heat and humidity.

The autumn colours were good this year as well and actually autumn seems to have felt quite long this time round. It almost feels a bit like autumn still these last few days actually as we have had a mild week or so. Before this current mild spell we did get a sprinkling of snow on the mountain and there have been a few cold snaps.

Having said that it is a little colder this morning - about 6 degrees at the moment - and temperatures are due to drop further later on in the day. Cloud is covering the mountain at the moment so not much to see. We might even get another dusting of snow overnight but nothing significant. After that it looks like a mix of rain/snow into early next week.

Madarao plans to have a 'Pre-Open' opening on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th December. Special one day lift tickets will be 500 yen on Saturday and 1,100 yen on Sunday.

After that the main season is due to kick off on Friday 16th December.